Electro-punk pop duo The Ting Tings provided their new FOH engineer, Trevor Gilligan, with plenty to think about on their recent UK tour.
For the group’s first production tour following on the heels their hit single “That’s Not My Name,� they occasionally played through the house system but the staple was nine Martin Audio W8LC compact line array enclosures to be flown either side (with four ground-stacked WS218X subs.)
Gilligan is an old hand at powering up his favored Martin Audio Compact Line Array — again provided by production company Capital Sound Hire — having earlier worked FOH stints with the system on Starsailor, Kasabian, the Hoosiers, St. Etienne and other tours.
“I have always liked the Martin Audio line array concept because it is a horn-loaded system and you can use the coloration to your advantage. It’s an easy system to work — they are certainly punchy yet easy on the ear; for the Ting Tings we were delivering a nice fat 100dB.�
The Ting Tings’ Jules De Martino (drums, guitar, vocals) and Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drum) serve up a versatile mix, swopping instruments mid-number and introducing a brass section on four numbers, while De Martino delivers a maze of electronic loops activated by half a dozen foot panels.
Gilligan says that the duo had asked him to dirty up the mix “to make the drums more bumpy and fat. Jules wanted it gritty at the low end. In other words, although the mix is similar to the album I have had to add weight to the low end so that once the crowd recognize the song they can really get off on it.�
He made minimal use of the effects on his Yamaha M7CL. “It’s mainly a pretty raw mix; essentially them coming down the channels.�
In addition Cap Sound provided four Martin W2’s for front fill and a W8C for outfill. “This is just to give presence around the side where the array isn’t hitting,� says Capital Tech Toby Donovan. Martin Audio components also featured heavily at the stage end with a mix of in-ears and sleek Martin Audio LE1500 floor wedges (Cap Sound having come up with some clever presets of their own to optimize the floor monitors).
With the tour now complete, the Ting Tings will start working on their follow-up album to their successful debut, We Started Nothing.
Photo Caption: Ting Tings FOH Engineer Trevor Gilligan with System Tech Toby Donovan.
For more information about Martin Audio, please contact: Rob Hofkamp, Director North American Operations at 519.747.5853 and [email protected], or visit www.martin-audio.com.
